World News Quick Take

Agencies

AUSTRALIA

Royal hoax show canceled

The radio show behind a hoax telephone call to the London hospital where the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge was being treated has been canceled. The show and the two DJs behind the prank last month were widely condemned after the death of a nurse who answered the telephone and helped the DJs get confidential information about Kate Middleton’s health. The Hot 30 program was taken off air following the death of the nurse, Jacintha Saldanha, and the Australian Associated Press reported on Monday that Southern Cross Austereo, the parent company of radio station 2DayFM, announced the program had been formerly canceled. The DJs impersonated Queen Elizabeth II and her son Prince Charles as they phoned London’s King Edward VII hospital in the early hours of Dec. 4 to ask about the condition of the Duchess of Cambridge, who had been hospitalized there after suffering from severe morning sickness. The DJs’ shaky upper-crust accents were apparently enough to fool Saldanha, who put them through to a colleague, who in turn described the details of Kate’s condition. The call went viral and was broadcast the world over, but the incident took a darker turn after Saldanha’s body was found hanging in her room three days after the prank. It was an apparent suicide that many have assumed was related to stress from the call.

AUSTRALIA

PM’s partner in hot water

The partner of Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, whose fiery speech against sexism last year made global headlines, apologized yesterday for making a quip about an “Asian female doctor.” Tim Mathieson made the comment during a reception at The Lodge in Canberra on Monday night attended by members of the West Indies cricket team. Mathieson, who has worked to raise awareness about men’s health issues, brought up the need for men to have regular checks for prostate cancer. “Go and get that exam that none of us like to have done, but we know we should,” Mathieson said. Gillard was standing behind him at the time. “We can get a blood test for it, but the digital examination is the only true way to get a correct reading on your prostate, so make sure you go and do that, and perhaps look for a small Asian female doctor is probably the best way.” The comment was met with laughter at the time, but the opposition said Mathieson’s remark was in bad taste and he later apologized. “It was meant as a joke and on reflection I accept it was in poor taste,” he said in a statement.

MALAYSIA

Pygmy elephants found dead

Ten endangered Borneo pygmy elephants have been found dead in a forest under mysterious circumstances and wildlife officials said yesterday that they were probably poisoned. Carcasses of the baby-faced elephants were found near each other over the past three weeks at the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve, said Laurentius Ambu, director of the wildlife department in Sabah State on Borneo island. In one case, officers rescued a three-month-old calf that was trying to wake its dead mother. Poisoning appeared to be the likely cause, but officials have not determined whether it was intentional, Sabah Environmental Minister Masidi Manjun said. Though some elephants have been killed for their tusks on Sabah in past years, there was no sign that these animals had been poached. “This is a very sad day for conservation and Sabah,” Masidi said in a statement. “If indeed these poor elephants were maliciously poisoned, I would personally make sure that the culprits would be brought to justice and pay for their crime.”